Mark Blyth: The Psychological Impact of Capitalism | #58

Critical Edge hosts Ollie and Lukas sit down with Professor Mark Blyth, an expert in political economy, to unpack how economic ideas shape the world we live in. We explore why being wrong is essential to learning, drawing on Nassim Taleb’s ideas of uncertainty, fragility, and “skin in the game.” From there, the conversation ranges across bubbles (AI, housing, finance), the commodification of time and everyday life, and why economics can’t be treated as a value-free hard science. We dig into inequality, trickle-down economics, wealth and taxation, austerity, and the concentration of power in today’s tech-dominated capitalism—before turning to one of the most contentious issues in politics: immigration. Blyth offers a characteristically blunt and nuanced account of why immigration debates provoke such intensity, how economics, culture, and media manipulation interact, and why avoiding these discussions only deepens the problem. Hosted by two Oxford graduates, Critical Edge aims to help you learn how to think, not what to think, through serious but accessible conversations with leading thinkers. Subscribe for more.